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The Sundance Institute has announced the works selected across the Indie Episodic, Shorts and Special Events sections for the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, which will include documentaries on Hillary Clinton and Lance Armstrong, and two Lin-Manuel Miranda films.

“Authenticity and independent voices resonate across formats – and that’s evident across the full spectrum of this year’s Indie Episodic and Special Events slates,” Kim Yutani, the Festival’s Director or Programming, said. “Defined by distinctive voices and enlightening viewpoints, these are riveting projects that find inspiration in the urgent stories and extraordinary individuals of our times.”

Of the projects announced on Tuesday, 48% were directed or created by one or more women, 33% were directed or created by one or more filmmakers of color and 19% by one or more people who identify as Lgbtqia. Seven films were supported by Sundance Institute in development.

Also Read: Taylor Swift, Viggo Mortensen and Tessa Thompson Lead...

Park City is with her — or will be, when an under-wraps documentary series about Hillary Clinton debuts at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

“Hillary,” directed by Nanette Burstein, is one of several projects going up in Sundance’s special events program, announced Tuesday by the festival in step with its short film and indie episodic lineups.

The four-part series, produced by Hulu, is described as “a portrait of a public woman, interweaving moments from never-before-seen 2016 campaign footage with biographical chapters of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s life.” The project will feature interviews with Clinton herself, husband Bill Clinton, close friends and journalists, and represent “an examination of how she became simultaneously one of the most admired and vilified women in the world.” It premieres March 6 on Hulu.

It’s unclear if Clinton will appear at the festival in support of the project. This summer, reports said she and daughter Chelsea Clinton...

Exclusive: 108 Media has picked up Us rights to the award-winning Canadian comedy and plans a one-week theatrical run in August.

Matthew Kowalchuk directed Lawrence & Holloman, which recently won best feature at the 15th annual Canadian Comedy Awards and has picked up awards across the Canadian festival cicruit including Vancouver and Edmonton international film festivals.

The film charts the exploits of a suicidal debt collector and an ebullient suit salesman whose fortunes change as their friendship develops.

Kowalchuk and Daniel Arnold adapted the stage play by Morris Panych. Ben Cotton, Katharine Isabelle, Amy Matysio and Daniel Arnold star.

108 Media will release Lawrence & Holloman in Los Angeles at the Downtown Independent from August 7-13, followed by VOD release on iTunes, Amazon, Xbox, Vudu, Google Play and other platforms on August 11.

Paul Armstrong, Mary Anne Waterhouse, Andrew Currie, Robyn Wiener and Don Thompson produced.

“108 Media can’t wait to introduce Lawrence & Holloman to the United States,” said CEO [link...

Lawrence & Holloman is one of those movies you either love or you hate. Based on a stage play from Morris Panych, it tells the story of two very opposite men – successful and sunny suit salesman Lawrence and dour, depressed clerk Holloman – who become friends and, later, foes.

It was a bold move for a first-time feature director, Vancouver’s Matthew Kowalchuk, and Daniel Arnold, who plays Holloman, to attempt to take the text to a different medium. The play is challenging and darkly funny, and its transition from a two-person show to the big screen was full of challenges and changes.

Last week, I sat down for an exclusive interview with Arnold and Kowalchuk, who discussed why their film is like Barton Fink, the biggest changes from stage to screen and when it is ok for a dark comedy to cross the line.

Check it out below and enjoy!

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Dark comedy is a difficult thing to get right. The humor must be daring enough to go to uncompromising places, but mean and sardonic jokes only work if they are funny. The issue with jokes that aim to be savage and nasty is that they are also easy to make: it is simple to poke fun at someone in a vulgar way if the humor depends on humiliating that target. It is too simple for a screenwriter to whip up a joke that emasculates a male character – for instance, one making fun of their lack of sexual prowess – and put it down on the page. Similarly, it also demands little effort to turn the person who is making that crude joke into a boorish stereotype.

On those counts, Lawrence & Holloman is a comedic failure, a film empty of originality, compassion or humanity. Director and co-writer Matthew Kowalchuk does not give...

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater kicks off the 201415 season with the world premiere of Morris Panych's The Shoplifters, a biting comedy about society's haves and have-nots and how much they might actually have in common. Noted Canadian playwright and director Panych, a two-time recipient of the Governor General's Literary Award, makes his Arena Stage debut with an expertly drawn cast of oddball characters and a high-stakes battle of wills involving a career shoplifter whose life of petty crime is halted by an overzealous rookie security guard and his ambivalent mentor. The Shoplifters runs September 5-October 19, 2014 in the Kreeger Theater.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater kicks off the 201415 season with the world premiere of Morris Panych's The Shoplifters, a biting comedy about society's haves and have-nots and how much they might actually have in common. Noted Canadian playwright and director Panych, a two-time recipient of the Governor General's Literary Award, makes his Arena Stage debut with an expertly drawn cast of oddball characters and a high-stakes battle of wills involving a career shoplifter whose life of petty crime is halted by an overzealous rookie security guard and his ambivalent mentor. The Shoplifters runs September 5-October 19, 2014 in the Kreeger Theater.

A few months ago, I met with well-known stage and screen actor Olympia Dukakis and actor Marco Barricelli, artistic director of Shakespeare Santa Cruz. They were starting early rehearsals for Canadian writer Morris Panych's "Vigil," a two-hander to open at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco in March, with the author directing. Speaking with Back Stage, Dukakis and Barricelli touched on many subjects related to the craft of acting. They've worked together previously on several projects and have a wonderful rapport. I was mesmerized by how intently each listened to the other. Here is an edited account of the conversation.Back Stage: What do you think about each other's working process?Olympia Dukakis: Marco's right there all the time.Marco Barricelli: That's true for Olympia too. I feel like there's no fucking around, no obfuscation. She sort of puts you on your best game. She's watching and...

"Listening" is the key to good acting, according to Helen Stenborg. Co-starring Off-Broadway at the DR2 Theatre in Morris Panych's "Vigil" gives her the chance to exercise that talent. This two-hander centers on the evolving relationship between a misanthropic young man (Malcolm Gets) and his dying, estranged aunt Grace (Stenborg), who barely speaks.While the 84-year-old Minneapolis native has never played a silent character before, her preparation for this part is basically the same as for any other. There is one major difference: She will not share certain elements of Grace's inner life with Gets or the director, Stephen Dimenna. "Sometimes they ask me, 'What are you thinking?' That's my secret. But it's interesting: If I change my thoughts, I'll get a different reaction from Malcolm." She adds she is able to offer variety in her silent responses, by registering his change of mood.At this point in her six-decade career,...

Albert Schultz, Founding Artistic Director of Soulpepper Theatre Company, today announced that the company's production of Parfumerie will run November 26 - December 24, 2009, at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.

Soulpepper debuts a new adaptation of Miklós László's touching romantic comedy from Canadian writers Adam Pettle and Brenda Robins.

One of the world's most beloved stories, Parfumerie has inspired three movies (The Shop Around the Corner, The Good Old Summertime, and You've Got Mail) and one musical (She Loves Me). Set at Christmas time, two clerks in a Budapest perfume shop despise each other, while unknowingly exchanging love letters as anonymous penpals.

Morris Panych returns to Soulpepper (Blithe Spirit, 2007) to direct the unlikely pair of secret admirers, Patricia Fagan (Rosie) and Oliver Dennis (Azstalos), with Maev Beaty as Miss Ratz, Kevin Bundy as Kadash, Jeff Lillico as Arpad, Noah Reid as Jansic, Brenda Robins as Miss Molnar, Michael Simpson as Sipos,...

After 30 years, Kemp has come to say goodbye to his sick, elderly aunt. But don't order the flowers for the service just yet. Performed as part of Westport Country Playhouse's 2008 Season, Vigil is the much lauded, new play by award-winning Morris Panych, one of Canada's most celebrated playwrights. Starring Tony Award nominees Malcolm Gets (Television's "Caroline in the City") and theatre legend Helen Stenborg, Vigil tells the wickedly funny story of a selfish bank drudge who is tending to the dying aunt he hasn't seen in 30 years. She, however, isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Vigil is sure to appeal to those who love their comedy with a dark twist.

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) is thrilled to kick off the Americas Off Broadway festival with the NYC premiere of Morris Panych's The Dishwashers, directed by Byam Stevens. The Dishwashers, from the Chester Theatre Company (Chester, Ma), begins previews on Friday, May 8 for a limited engagement through Sunday, June 7. Opening Night is Wednesday, May 13 at 8:15 Pm.

This August, the New York International Fringe Festival has again taken over the city's downtown theatre scene, offering over 1,300 performances of 200-plus shows in more than 20 venues. Who'd even try to compete with that?Well, there are over a dozen Off- and Off-Off-Broadway productions running concurrently with the Fringe yet not part of that massive festival. Shows on the fringe of the Fringe, however, must compete for the same audiences at the same time but without the benefit of the same buzz.Reasons for producing at this time vary. For one thing, it's significantly cheaper to rent rehearsal and performance spaces in the summer than at other times of the year, August being the cheapest month of all. For new and developing theatre companies, that can be enough incentive in itself, and any conflict with the Fringe is little more than an afterthought. Sometimes the Fringe is even seen as a benefit,...